Waiting…

I’m not talking about the banalities of waiting in traffic or waiting behind a check-writer in the check-out line of the grocery store.

I’m talking about Waiting to hear news about a job in the midst of unemployment. Waiting for a diagnosis. Waiting for that life-changing email or phone call. Waiting for a response.

Waiting for more information so that you can move beyond the gazillion choose-your-own-adventure style possibilities in your head and actually start doing the “next thing,” whatever that may be.

Most recently, this Waiting sat like a ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach. My boys got sick while we were visiting my parents in Malaysia.

When my younger one gets sick, it’s always been no-energy with a scary-high fever for the first 24 hours. After that first 24-hours, the high fever always breaks and then, I can tell whether it’s worthy of a doctor’s visit or just a passing bug. My older one has a similar cycle, but the high-fever isn’t quite so scary. It was only a 24 hour wait. I have waited longer for other things, but this was my children… in another country… it was just hard.

Waiting is hard.

It’s not that I don’t have hope. I have confidence that the grace of God will help me face whatever challenges may come. But as a person of action, I’ll be the first to admit that the Waiting is just hard.

Can you relate? Do you struggle with Waiting?

Of course the Waiting provides us with an invitation to trust and an opportunity to pray. But I am still struck by how hard that Waiting can be.

Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. (Psalm 25:5)

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27:14)

Passage after passage offers encouragement – not chastisement for a lack of faith. I hear these Psalms affirming and validating us… encouraging us because Waiting is hard (not because we’re doing it wrong).